Be My Wings
by Susan M. M
Summary: The events of MALEFICENT, as seen from Diaval's point of view. Some scenes from the movie, some missing scenes.
1. He'd Seen Her Before

**Standard Fanfic Disclaimer **that wouldn't last ten seconds in a court of law: based on characters and situations from Linda Woolverton, Charles Perrault, Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Walt Disney, etc. Some dialogue by Linda Woolverton, taken from the movie. No attempt at intellectual theft or copyright violation. This is an amateur work of fan fiction, done to improve my typing speed and amuse my readers. No profit has been made nor is likely to be made from this bit of scribblement. This story is debuting as 'netfic, and has not been previously published in any fanzine or APA, although it did see the light of day at AO3 before coming to FanFiction-dot-net.

**Be My Wings**

_Maleficent_

by Susan M. M.

Diaval had seen her before, the beautiful fairy princess with the dark wings and the two black horns. He was a raven. Ravens flew everywhere; ravens saw everything. He had seen her soar through the skies. He had seen her at the borders of the Moors, holding off the human king's soldiers. It was disappointing when she did that, for dead soldiers made delicious carrion. Still, she was comely, for one of the Fair Folk.

He was surprised when he saw her in the ruins of the abandoned castle. He wasn't even sure it was her at first. She was female, with two black horns on her head, but she had no wings. He landed on the castle wall to take a look at her, trying to determine whether or not it was Maleficent. Humanoids tended to all look alike to a bird's eyes. She saw him looking at her, and shoo'd him off, using a pinch of eldritch energy to enforce her wishes.

The next time Diaval saw Maleficent, both of their lives changed forever.


	2. Rescue

Diaval had meant no harm. He was hungry. The human farmer had more grain than he needed. Many other birds - starlings, sparrows, crows, other ravens - had eaten their fill of the farmer's grain, and none had suffered for it. So when the farmer's dog attacked him, and chased him toward the farmer who was waiting with a net, it took him completely by surprise.

"I got ya," the farmer declared. He grabbed a stick and raised it up. His dog snarled.

Diaval struggled, trying to escape the net. Terror-struck, he tried not to panic. He failed. He sought to fly; the net was heavy enough to trap him on the ground. He tried to peck a hole; the rope of the net was too thick. The growling dog was so loud and so malodorous, it was impossible to think, to plan. Diaval didn't know if he'd be torn to bits by the dog's jaws or beaten to death by the farmer's stick, but he knew there was no way he could escape. Nevertheless, he persisted in trying.

Suddenly, his body shifted and grew. He changed. He transmogrified. The net was too small to hold him now, but he could not fly away. He stared in horror and disbelief as his wings became hands.

The farmer yelled once and fled. His dog followed him.

Then she stepped forward. Maleficent.

Dismayed, Diaval stared at his human form. "What have you done to my beautiful self?"

"Would you rather I let them beat you to death?"

"I'm not certain," Diaval confessed. He was, or at least he had been, a handsome bird. Now he was transformed, trapped in a human's ugly body.

"Stop complaining," Maleficent ordered. "I saved your life."

Diaval wished she hadn't reminded him of that. Until she said it aloud, it could be ignored. Once she said it, the life-debt was out in the open and he had no choice but to acknowledge it.

Diaval lowered his eyes. "Forgive me."

"What do I call you?" she asked.

"Diaval," he replied cockily. Then he realized it was time for humility to replace cockiness. "And in return for saving my life, I am your servant." He bowed his head. "Whatever you need."

"Wings. I need you to be my wings."

A confused expression came over his face.

Maleficent glanced up at scarecrow. She wiggled her fingers. Golden sparks glowed around the scarecrow. Its clothes disappeared and reappeared on Diaval.

"What are these for?"

"It's a custom of the humans to wear such things."

Diaval frowned. It was an stupid custom. The clothes itched. But discretion being the better part of valor, he decided not to complain. She'd already scolded him once for whinging.

They walked off. Before they'd gone a half-fathom, she returned him to his raven form. He took to the air and flew beside her as she walked.


	3. Two Coronations

"Be my wings," Diaval soon learnt, meant "be my spy." He flew over the humans' farms and villages, sometimes as far as King Henry's castle. He eavesdropped, and flew back to the Moors, where she would transform him into a human and order him to report to her.

The sunlight reflecting off the crown caught Diaval's attention. He landed on a castle window, just as the crown was placed on the new king's head. Stefan rose and displayed himself to his subjects. Leila, King Henry's daughter, sat in the throne beside Stefan, a sad expression on her face. Diaval leapt out of the window and flew back to the Moors.

When he reported the news to Maleficent, he wished he hadn't.

"He did this to me so he would be king."

She shrieked. A pillar of eldritch green flame appeared before her. Fueled by her pain, it grew until it reached to the clouds. 'Twas large enough and bright enough to be seen from the king's castle.

"What now, Mistress?" Diaval asked.

She marched off without answering him.

Diaval stood there, still human, afraid to follow her when she was in such a mood.

* * *

Dark clouds hid the sun, covering the Moors in shadow. The Faerie creatures Maleficent had once called friends stared as she marched across the causeway to the islet that held two standing stones. They gasped at the loss of her wings. They shivered at the angry expression on her once beautiful face, mirrored by the dark weather.

Without a word of incantation, the half-dead branches of the trees expanded and grew into a throne. Diaval flew down. Maleficent seated herself upon the throne, and he landed on her arm. Two of the entish guards approached, each taking his place on either side of throne. Balthazar growled, and the eldritch inhabitants of the Moors bowed to Maleficent.

She spoke not a word. She did not declare herself queen. She did not need to.

She petted Diaval.

He leaned into her strokes. Her hand felt good upon his feathers. He wondered, not for the first time, just what he was. A pet, like a songbird a human kept in a cage? A trained beast, like a falconer's goshawk? The queen's courtier? The queen's jester? A witch's familiar? He didn't know, and he tried not to think about it. Before Maleficent had saved his life, he hadn't thought about much beyond the joy of flight and where his next meal was coming from.

Her fingers stroked his feathers. He tried to clear his mind, and just enjoy her petting him.


	4. The Royal Christening

Diaval flew through the laundry room. He heard the laundresses repeating the same gossip he'd heard when he flew above the guards' barracks and when he stopped at the stables to steal some oats from the horses and eavesdrop on the grooms. She wasn't going to like this bit of news.

He flew back to the Moors. Maleficent was waiting for him on some mossy rocks near the river. She transformed him before he was ready, and he slipped and nearly fell. He bit back a swear-word he'd heard at the guards' barracks. He hated it when she did that. Transforming into a human was bad enough, but she could at least wait until he was in a safer position.

"Well?" she demanded.

Diaval exhaled, out of breath from his flight. He wondered how to break the news to her. "Well, I saw nothing, but there's been a, um -"

"What?" she snapped.

"Child."

She inhaled sharply.

"KIng Stefan and the queen have had a child." He peered into her face, dreading how she would take the news.

Her eyes narrowed. "Oh," she said after a moment, with a false calmness.

"There will be a christening," Diaval continued. "They say it's to be a grand occasion."

"A grand celebration for a baby? How wonderful."

Diaval tried not to shiver, for her tone frightened him. He knew she was angry with Stefan, not him. He also knew he was closer if she lost her temper and lashed out.

* * *

The lords and ladies of the kingdom had been paying their respects to the little Princess Aurora, offering christening gifts, when they were interrupted by three pixies from the Moors. Ignoring the way the seneschal had everyone lined up in order of rank, they cut in line to offer their wishes. Knotgrass wished beauty on the child. Flittle wished perpetual happiness. Thistlewit had just begun to offer her wish when the candles blew out. Darkness covered the great hall, and a cold wind blew through it. The chandeliers shook as though there were an earthquake. The cloaks and veils of the nobility and gentry blew in the wind.

A horned shadow appeared on the wall. Dressed all in black silk, Maleficent strode down the center of the great hall. The pixies huddled around the cradle, though whether to protect the princess or to hide from Maleficent, Diaval couldn't tell.

"Well, well." Maleficent grinned widely. Diaval flew in circles around his mistress, and then landed on her staff. "What a glittering assemblage, King Stefan."

Stefan leaned forward, braced for action. Queen Leila was frightened.

Maleficent began to pet Diaval. "Royalty, nobility, the gentry ..." She turned to the pixies hiding behind the cradle, pixies who had been her friends when she was a child. "How quaint. Even the rabble."

King Stefan stared at the eldritch beauty he had once betrayed.

"I must say, I really felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation," Maleficent said.

"You're not welcome here," Stefan retorted.

Maleficent pretended to whimper. "Oh." She looked down, as if abashed. Then she giggled. "Oh, dear. What an awkward situation."

Queen Leila spoke up for the first time, and fear was in her voice. "You're not offended?"

"Why, no," Maleficient replied.

Leila turned and looked at her husband. She knew full well that it was only because Stefan had cut the wings from this woman that he had become her husband and her father's heir.

"And to show I bear no ill will, I, too, shall bestow a gift on the child," Maleficent continued in a sickly sweet voice.

Diaval turned his head and looked at his mistress, afraid of what she might do, but unable to hinder her plans.

Stefan jumped to his feet. "No! We don't want your gift."

Ignoring him, Maleficent walked toward the cradle. Diaval flew off her staff and landed on the roof of the cradle.

The king shook his head, trying to deny a power he could not possibly stop. The pixies ordered her in vain to stay away from the princess. With one wave of her hand, Maleficent blew them away. They fell into a jewelry box.

"Hmm." Maleficent looked down at the blue-eyed baby. The baby looked up at her. "Listen well, all of you. The princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who meet her."

"That's a lovely gift," Leila said hastily, hoping against hope that Maleficent would stop there.

"Don't do this," Stefan implored, his voice barely above a whisper.

Maleficent put a finger to her lip. Diaval knew well she hated to be interrupted. She glanced from the king to the pile of gifts the princess had already received. Her eye fell on a spinning wheel and the shining, sharp spindle at its top. She walked away from the cradle and back to face the king and queen. She raised her arms, and a green light glowed and enveloped her. "But, before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep like death, a sleep from which she will never awaken."

Frightened, Queen Leila turned to her husband, looking for him to undo the curse.

"Maleficent, please don't do this, I'm begging you," King Stefan said.

"I like you begging." Maleficent ordered him, "Do it again."

The king hesitated. Maleficent nodded, indicating the polished floor of the dais in a silent command. Slowly, King Stefan sank to his knees before the fairy princess who had once been his childhood playmate, his first sweetheart. He looked at his courtiers, to see how they were reacting to him abasing himself before her. He forced the words out, and they came out grudgingly. "I beg you."

"All right." For a moment Maleficent seemed to have been won over by the sight of the king on his knees. "The princess can be woken from her death sleep, but only by true love's kiss." She sneered the last three words.

Stefan shook his head, stunned. He knew as well as Maleficent that there was no such thing as true love. He was the one who had taught her that lesson.

Maleficent turned and faced the court. "This curse shall last until the end of time. No power on Earth can change it."

The green glow spread throughout the great hall, and laughing, cackling, she marched out of the castle. Not one guard dared to raise a sword against her.


	5. It's going to starve

Chapter 5: "It's going to starve with those three looking after it."

* * *

King Stefan sent out his army to search for Maleficent. She, in turn, raised a thorn wall to separate the Moors from his human kingdom. Knotgrass, Thistlewit, and Flittle were entrusted with the princess, and took her to a cottage in the woods, where no one could find her. They underestimated the cleverness of ravens. Diaval found them within the day.

He led Maleficent to the cottage, and she peered in the window at her enemy's child. The baby gurgled and coo'd up at her. She snarled at the baby. It smiled at her again. Declaring it an "ugly beasty," Maleficent turned away.

* * *

When Aurora cried for milk, Flittle put carrots in her crib. Diaval cawed in dismay. He shook his head. On the hill above the cottage, Maleficent put her hands over her ears to block out the baby's cries. "It's going to starve with those three looking after it."

That night, Diaval flew through the cottage window, a flower from the Moor in his beak. He hopped from the windowsill to the cradle. He gave the flower to Aurora, who began sucking the nectar out of it. He rocked the cradle with his foot.

He brought her flowers every night, and in the daytime when the pixies weren't looking (which was distressingly often). The constant flying back and forth was wearying him, and he came up with a better plan.

"Mistress, " he asked one morning when she seemed to be in a better mood, "could you transform me into an eagle?"

"I could," she allowed. "Why should I?"

"Well, an eagle's not as handsome as a raven, but they fly higher. Be interesting to see what it's like."

"Very well." She twisted her fingers, and he transformed from man to eagle. "Be back by sundown. I may have need of you later."

Diaval trilled. He launched himself into the air. He flew over the thorn wall, to a woodcutter's cottage at the edge of the forest. There, in a ramshackle pen, stood a brown and white nanny goat and its kid. Diaval swooped down and grabbed the kid in his talons. It squealed plaintively. The nanny butted the pen door open and chased after him. Diaval stopped a few feet away and waited for the she-goat to catch up with him. Then he flew again, just a short distance, and when the nanny had caught up again, he flew again. He continued the process for the better part of an hour, until he reached Aurora's cottage. Then he released the kid, frightened, but mostly unharmed. The nanny ran to the kid.

Watching perched in a nearby tree, Diaval just hoped the pixies had brains enough between them to figure out how to milk a goat. Thistlewit, in his opinion, was well-named, and the other two were just as bad.


	6. Her Wings, Her Eyes, Her Ears

"Be my wings," Diaval had learnt, meant "be my spy." Her wings, her eyes, her ears. And now, her nose.

Ravens can smell carrion a mile away. Diaval could smell that Aurora's diaper needed changing long before he landed on the cottage windowsill. He almost flew away again, but while that would have spared his nose, Aurora's bottom would be left to suffer.

He cawed once, to attract the pixies' attention.

"Oh, look, a crow. Is it good luck to see a crow or bad luck?" Flittle asked.

"It's not a crow, it's a raven," Knotgrass replied. "Dirty bird. Shoo it away before it gets close to Aurora."

"It's seeing a hawk that's good luck," Thistlewit said, "not crows or ravens."

Diaval cawed once in disbelief. There was nothing lucky about seeing a hawk, in his opinion. Hawks were as dangerous as humans.

Flittle asked, "Do you think Aurora would like it as a pet? We could tie a string around its leg or put it in a cage."

"Certainly not! It might bite Aurora." Knotgrass waved her hands. "Shoo. Go away."

Diaval hopped off the windowsill and down to the ground. Out of the idiots' sight, but still close enough to listen.

"The poor thing's probably hungry. Maybe we could toss it some bread crumbs," Thistlewit suggested.

"Goodness knows the bread isn't fit for us to eat," Knotgrass muttered.

"I know King Stefan wants us to stay hidden here, but maybe we should take the cart to the village once a week and buy supplies. Nobody would notice us. We'd just slip into the village, buy some bread and cheese and such, and slip out again," Flittle said.

Knotgrass nodded. "We'd be completely inconspicuous, just three ordinary peasant women."

Outside the cottage, Diaval put his wing over his head.

"Maybe two peasant women," Thistlewit suggested. "Someone should stay with the baby."

"Oh, we can take her with us. The outing would be good for you, wouldn't it, Aurora?"

Outside the cottage, Diaval could hear footsteps, and guessed that Knotgrass was walking to the cradle. A second later, he heard her cry out in dismay.

"Stinky baby! Flittle, it's your turn to change the baby," Knotgrass said.

"No, it's not, it's Thistlewit's turn," Flittle protested.

"I did it last time," Thistlewit complained.

Diaval launched himself into the air. They would squabble, but sooner or later one of them would change the baby. Mission accomplished. His little chick would be taken care of.

Diaval nearly flew into a tree, surprised by his own thought. When had he begun thinking of her as his chick?

* * *

"So the Marshfolk are complaining, are they? What are they saying?" Maleficent demanded.

"Mistress, what does it matter if they grumble against you? You're the most powerful fairy in the Moors," Diaval pointed out. "They can't do anything; they're just squawking."

She twirled her fingers. He transformed from a man into a raven. "When I want your opinion, I'll tell you."

* * *

Diaval swooped down to the walled garden, nestled away in a corner of the castle's courtyard. Queen Leila sat in the garden weeping.

One of her ladies-in-waiting gave her a handkerchief. "There will be other babes, my queen."

"Other babes, to be cursed by that foul witch?" Leila all but spat the words out.

"Perhaps the Evil One will not touch the next child," the other lady-in-waiting suggested.

"There will be no next child. I'll sleep alone before I risk bearing another child to be stolen away."

"Not stolen, my queen, hidden. The princess is safely hidden away from the Evil One."

"Hidden by three fairies. Hidden from her own parents. Why should he trust three of the Fair Folk, when he has always hated the Moors and its inhabitants, when he couldn't trust my father's guards?" demanded Queen Leila.

The ladies-in-waiting had no answer for her.

Diaval cawed once and flew away. He'd come to eavesdrop on the gossip in the guards' barracks, not to be an unwilling witness to the queen's sorrow.


	7. Diaval Asks A Question

Inside the cottage, thunder roared and lightning flashed. Rain fell down in buckets worth. Outside, the sky was clear; the day was fair.

"Oh! That lightning hurt!" one of the pixies complained loudly enough for Diaval and Maleficent to hear her.

Diaval was glad that Maleficent limited the rain to the ground floor of the cottage. Upstairs, where Aurora napped, it was dry.

Maleficent grinned at the pixies accused each other of using magic. She giggled. She wriggled her fingers, controlling the storm inside the cottage. She turned to Diaval, who was not sharing her amusement. "Oh, c'mon, that's funny."

"Mistress, there's something I need to know."

"Really?" she asked superciliously. "And what is that?"

"When are you planning on revoking the curse?" Diaval asked.

She stared at him for a moment. "Who said I was planning on revoking it?"

Diaval gave her a coaxing smile. "Mistress."

She turned away from him.

"May I speak freely?"

"No." She raised her hand. She crooked her fingers, ready to cast another spell. He shocked her by reaching out and grabbing her wrist.

"Any time you don't like what I have to say, you change me."

Maleficent swirled her fingers. Diaval turned into a raven.

"What a brilliant observation," Maleficent said.

* * *

Author's Note: This is a deleted scene from the movie. The dialogue is by Linda Woolverton. I merely wrote the descriptions.


	8. Diaval's Chick

Aurora grew, though far slower than a raven chick would. Diaval watched her every day, and Maleficent nearly as often. The raven didn't always see the black-horned fairy, but after so long in her service, he could sense her. Sometimes they watched the child together.

Diaval tried to hide his impatience as Maleficent tugged on the pixies' hair. She had an regrettably juvenile sense of humor. Maleficent grinned as the pixies started pulling each other's hair and wrestling with each other.

Aurora, unwatched by any but the raven, happily chased after a butterfly.

"Oh, look. The little beast is about to fall off the cliff," Maleficent announced in a blasé tone.

Diaval squawked, urging her to do something.

Maleficent just sat beside a tree.

Diaval heard a scream as Aurora fell off the cliff. He hid his head behind his wing. Then he heard the child laugh. Daring to peek, he saw that Maleficent had animated the vines hanging down the cliff into a giant hand which had caught Aurora and gently lifted her back to the meadow. He cawed in relief. He looked at Maleficent.

"What?" Maleficent demanded.

Diaval merely tilted his head and looked at her. He did not understand his mistress, and feared he never would. She claimed to hate Aurora for King Stefan's sake, and refused to revoke the curse. She had even ordered him not to ask her about revoking the curse again, or she would turn him into an ant and step on him. Yet this was not the first time she had protected the child.

The pixies continued their scuffle, completely unaware of Aurora's danger or her rescue.

* * *

Hiding behind an old clay pot, Diaval cawed.

"Where are you? I'll find you," Aurora said. The five-year-old dashed around the backyard of the cottage.

Diaval cawed again.

Aurora followed the sound of his cries. She approached the pot. "I know where you are."

Diaval waited silently.

Aurora peeked behind the pot. "Found you!"

Diaval flew into the air, and landed on the laundry line.

"I still see you!"

Diaval flew to the cherry tree and landed on the ground behind it. Aurora chased after him.

"Found you, pretty bird!"

Diaval cawed once, then took wing, landing on a tree branch. He grabbed a twig with his beak and pulled it loose. He dropped the twig, cherries and all, into Aurora's lap.

"Thank you, pretty bird."

* * *

"Cinderella we-wept in the garden," Aurora sounded out the words carefully. "Suddenly a be-at-oot-"

"Beautiful," Knotgrass corrected her.

"Beautiful lady appeared before her. 'Why are you crying, my child?' "

Diaval perched in the cherry tree, listening as Aurora had her lesson at the picnic table in the yard. Knotgrass sat beside her, helping her with the hard words. Thistlewit and Flittle sat on the other side of the table, shelling peas. He decided there was something to this reading business, and if a chick like Aurora could manage it, there was no reason a clever bird like himself couldn't, too.

" 'Who are you?' Cinderella asked. 'I'm your fairy godmother.' " The eight-year-old looked up. "What's a fairy godmother?"

The three pixies shared a knowing smile.

"A fairy godmother is a beautiful, powerful magical being," Thistlewit said.

"Very beautiful and very powerful," Flittle confirmed.

"Fairy godmothers help human children," Knotgrass explained. "They give them gifts and good advice."

"Do I have a fairy godmother?" Aurora asked.

The pixies smirked.

"I'm quite sure you do," Knotgrass said.

Thistlewit giggled. "Maybe even more than one."


End file.
